TY  - BOOK
AU  - Derleth,August
TI  - The Maugham Obsession
T2  - Produced from Fantastic Universe June-July 1953
AV  - PS 
PY  - 2023///
CY  - Salt Lake City, UT
PB  - Project Gutenberg
KW  - Science fiction
KW  - Short stories
KW  - Inventors -- Fiction
KW  - Robots -- Fiction
N1  - Release date is 2023-12-25; Greg Weeks, Mary Meehan and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net; Originally published; New York, NY: King-Size Publications, Inc., 1953
N2  - "The Maugham Obsession" by August Derleth is a science fiction short story written in the early 1950s. The narrative delves into the life of Quintus Maugham, an inventor obsessively perfecting his creation—a humanoid robot named Herman. The story explores the themes of ambition and the potential consequences of pushing the boundaries of invention, highlighting the fine line between success and obsession.  In the tale, Maugham's journey reveals the evolution of Herman from a mere invention to an entity that exhibits increasingly human-like characteristics. As Maugham's obsession grows, he becomes increasingly detached, neglecting social interactions and his own well-being in favor of perfecting Herman. The story culminates in Maugham's mysterious disappearance when a flood strikes his new home in Nevada, suggesting a blurred reality where the lines between creator and creation, human and machine, become indistinguishable. The ironic twist at the end, where their identities are transposed in a newspaper report, underscores the story's commentary on the nature of humanity and the dangers of obsession. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
UR  - https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/72507
ER  -